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Financial Market Of The Gcc ( Gulf Cooperation Council )

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In July of 2014, the most important events of in the history of financial market in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) has been announced. Saudi Arabia has approved to open its equity market to direct foreign investment and CMA has drafted rules for Qualified Foreign Institutions. Its equity market (Tadawul) valued around USD 530 billion and which will open an opportunity for the largest global investment funds to inject their funds into one of the most lucrative emerging markets. However, once the announcement hit the news, Tadawul market index hit the 10,000 point for the first time in six years as the market react with optimism over the news. The Saudi Stock market was limited to Saudi and GCC investors only and for those outside of the region, their only way of investing is through swaps and mutual funds (Butt, 2014). However, different institutional investors either in the region or globally has received the news with optimism for long-awaited golden opportunity as the biggest economy in middle east has opened its door to qualified institutional investors. Bassel Khatoun, the head of MENA equities at Franklin Templeton Investments said "As the largest equity market in the Middle East and North Africa, this will certainly put the region back on international investors ' radar and is likely to be transformative for regional equities,” Also some analysts thinks that Saudi Arabia could be similar to China’s qualified foreign institutional investor plan when the Chinese

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